Comments for Untold Arsenal: Supporting the club, the manager and the team https://untold-arsenal.com
"I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art." A WengerSat, 06 Jun 2020 21:02:16 +0000
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Comment on Who are Arsenal selling this summer & what do we need to do? by WalterBroeckx https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81467#comment-977926
Sat, 06 Jun 2020 21:02:16 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81467#comment-977926https://www.arsenal.com/news/highlights-arsenal-put-six-past-charlton

for those interested 😉

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Comment on Will home advantage vanish as the PL restarts? And if not, why not? by Nitram https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81449#comment-977924
Sat, 06 Jun 2020 15:23:18 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81449#comment-977924Mikey

As I keep saying Mikey, whether there is or isn’t any validity to any of these articles is completely and utterly irrelevant, as the sole purpose is to knock Arsenal, and to knock them on an almost daily basis.

Yes every club has the occasional negative story but no other club gets the relentless attacks we get, especially when hardly any of them have any basis in fact or are put into any perspective at all.

Us presenting evidence to the contrary on here, despite this blogs popularity, does nothing to counteract the negativity these incessant main stream media attacks have on our fans.

By the way, well done on those home card stats you presented. Yet more evidence of the utterly bonkers way we are refereed as well.

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Comment on Will home advantage vanish as the PL restarts? And if not, why not? by Mikey https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81449#comment-977918
Sat, 06 Jun 2020 12:48:21 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81449#comment-977918As far as “selling clubs” go it’s interesting to note that of the top 50 most expensive transfers involving the premier league Arsenal transfer in five players and transferred out exactly zero! Meanwhile, Liverpool transferred 3 out and two in; Chelsea 4 out, 3 in; Man Ut; 4 out, 4 in; Spuds 1 out, zero in. Man City, unsurprisingly, transferred six in and none out.

But back to the point, we made no big money sales out but two in. So a net transfer of big money transfers in, aside from Man City, no other team can say that. In fact, you have to go back 20 years to Marc Overmars before you find our biggest value sale. Our third highest value sale was Anelka a year earlier. So in terms of highest value transfers out of the club in the last 20 years we have just Oxlade-Chamberlain.

So why are we a “selling club”? Because we sell players I guess………..but then who doesn’t?

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Comment on Who are Arsenal selling this summer & what do we need to do? by Nitram https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81467#comment-977916
Sat, 06 Jun 2020 10:12:37 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81467#comment-977916Tony

“And then there is Sky Sports endlessly telling us what a cock up we made of it all by not signing players even if the players themselves chose not to come to Arsenal. As with their current piece, “Riyad Mahrez, Wilfried Zaha, Marco Reus: Arsenal’s top 50 signings that got away.” No, not got away, were never coming.”

Even if, as you say Tony, these targets didn’t actually ‘get away’ as they probably were ‘never coming’ in the first place, that’s not the point, because yet again all it is, is an opportunity to bash Arsenal, irrespective of any credibility or context what so ever.

To do that they would need to do 2 things that they clearly never do:

1) Show some evidence that any of the players mentioned were ever coming.

2) Show why Arsenal alone are deserving of being singled out for ridicule like this by demonstrating exactly how it is Arsenal differ from any other club with regards to actual targets that ‘get away’. Are they saying no other clubs have players on their ‘wish list’ that they fail to acquire. That seems highly unlikely to me, but where’s the list of Spurs targets that got away for example?

To get an idea of just how ridiculous this sort of pathetic nonsense is you just have to take a look at the latest count of Arsenal ‘targets’ this year alone.

I know it’s more, but for ease lets say it’s a nice round 100. And lets say we actually do acquire 5 of them. I know that’s more than the usual accuracy but again just for the hell of it.

That means that this year alone SKY could quite easily run the headline:

THE 95 PLAYERS ARSENAL LET GET AWAY.

If you went back over the last few years Untold has been running these lists of ‘supposed’ Arsenal targets I would suggest if SKY had been so inclined they could of ran the headline: THE 600 PLAYERS ARSENAL LET GET AWAY.

That is how pathetic that article really is.

Note:

I find it beyond belief that anybody can still deny this anti Arsenal bias in the media exists. Tony, you have highlighted article after article of complete and utter garbage that is mostly, or often as not, completely fictional and almost always without either evidence or context at all.

I am still waiting for the Untold Police (he knows who he is) to show us any similar made up nonsense about any other PL Club.

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Comment on Arsenal need to sell, Tottenham are financially strong. Oh, hang on… by Mike T https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81453#comment-977906
Fri, 05 Jun 2020 13:02:22 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81453#comment-977906The AST projections were that within the next few weeks the reserves that Arsenal have access to ( around £35 million can not be touched as part of the agreement with bond holders) would have been eroded.

Now I have no idea if they are right but likewise no one on here has evidence to point to them being wrong. The irony is moving from AWs version of a sustainable football club to the current financial model is poles apart.

As for Spurs they clearly are overstretched and bear in mind that it’s not THFC that have arranged the £175 million it’s THFC Stadium ltd.

Sorry Paul but whilst this debt may not be secured against assets if THFC Stadium were to default on repayment then they have everything to lose.

The issue here is that the potential loss of £200 million would be horrendous but if that estimate is correct how are they going to find the money to repay? I would suggest either by borrowing via conventional means or selling assets

We all get territorial but we really should all be hoping that all clubs survive alas this are horrendous times and we the supporters can only look on with fingers crossed

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Comment on Aubameyang leaving Arsenal at knock down price? It’s not quite that simple. by Eddie https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81423#comment-977905
Fri, 05 Jun 2020 12:11:40 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81423#comment-977905I hardly tale Neville serious anyway.
He’s a clown, at least I see him as one.
When Arsenal signed PEA, the plaudits came, “Oh they’ve got a great player, an interesting deal for that amount”.

Fast forward, suddenly Arsenal made a mistake and it’s a poor transfer deal to have signed PEA for that amount on three years.
While I do agree he shouldn’t have been allowed to run his contract down, you also need to consider the fact that he also hasn’t gotten what we promised him has he?
What has he achieved with us despite his insane contributions?
If the club did better and performed better, are we gone be struggling with PEA’s contract?
No they don’t think about that do they?
Clowns, bunch of them are clowns.
Oh and it’s my first time commenting here

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Comment on Arsenal need to sell, Tottenham are financially strong. Oh, hang on… by paul35mm https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81453#comment-977902
Fri, 05 Jun 2020 08:24:15 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81453#comment-977902Sports writers (you cannot really call them journalists) have no clue when it comes to covering finances. That’s one of the reasons they don’t write about it. The other reason is, most fans do not understand finance either. The clueless writing for the clueless is not likely to generate readership.

Another reason is, finance is not sexy unless you think power is sexy, and power is only sexy if you have it. The writers for the papers have none, their owners have plenty. The paper owners do not want their writers pissing on the feet of their advertisers by writing about how the league, the teams, FIFA, etc. move money around for their own benefit to the detriment of the fans who pay the ever-increasing price.

While I agree that Arsenal are, no doubt, in good financial condition – good management has been the club’s hallmark under Kroenke, though he is constantly pilloried for it; it is also very likely that “Wntold” has both gotten it right and wrong at the same time with Tottenham’s financial position.

Here’s why. First, Tottenham have invested heavily in keeping their current players; Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Dele Alli, etc. and not spent much in bringing in new players. Harry Kane is a symbol of the club’s new ambitions and losing him to a big-money transfer, while probably the right move for both club and player, will cause fans to question those ambitions and Tottenham’s brief moment as the ascendant north London side will be over. Tottenham may or may not need to sell Kane for financial reasons, but they absolutely cannot afford to sell him for P.R. reasons. This has reduced the team’s flexibility; and anyone looking at the on-pitch performance knows that Tottenham’s window of opportunity to win a title with this group has slammed shut.

When Leicester won the league and held on to Jamie Vardy by outbidding Arsenal for him, it signaled the club was willing to invest in the team to remain competitive. It was a P.R. move aimed at their fans and also their players. Since then, players leaving Leicester have gone for massive premiums, while the core of the club has changed slowly. They lost Kante, but held on to Vardy, Schmeichel, Mahrez, etc. Tottenham have taken the same approach and mostly, it worked. Except that, while that Leicester have a fee-spending owner investing well beyond revenue in the club, Tottenham have a very Arsenal-like approach to team finances.

Second, borrowing money at .5% is good business. Borrowing £175 MILLION in an unsecured loan at .5% is (if a little sleazy) f-ing brilliant. This loan is not secured by club assets, like the stadium, so it won’t hurt the club’s over-all valuation. If Spurs default on the Stadium loan, the bank takes the stadium. If they default on the £175 MILLION they lose… nothing.

The team now has all that money in their back pocket, which frees up revenues for investing as the team sees fit. The team might not invest that cash directly in players, butt the cushion it provides allows them freedom to manage the club with out being afraid of immediate financial disaster.

No doubt loss of revenue from renting the stadium will hurt the Spurs, virtually every stadium in the league generates revenue for the clubs that own them in similar ways. Arsenal also rent out the Emirates. The team will, no doubt, find the loss of that money as well. Spurs might lose more than other teams. Bournemouth, for example, probably generate a lot less from their stadium, but all the teams are suffering from loss of non-football revenues.

The anti-Arsenal bias in the media is a real thing – for sure, but the bias of the writers is only part of why those articles get written. Regardless, I love the perspective. Keep it up.

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Comment on Arsenal need to sell, Tottenham are financially strong. Oh, hang on… by Paul Meadows https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81453#comment-977900
Fri, 05 Jun 2020 01:08:22 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81453#comment-977900It’s all total Boll** Both Tottenham and Arsenal will have to tighten their pursestrings along with many clubs especially with the Covid -19 situation.
If anything it might actually even things up a little between the clubs.
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Comment on Arsenal need to sell, Tottenham are financially strong. Oh, hang on… by Chris https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81453#comment-977897
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 18:36:51 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81453#comment-977897Wanna take a bet ? Nothing is going to change. Not a bit. Arsenal are facing armageddon, Tottenham are genuises for having refinanced etc etc etc. And now they have a player who tested positive.
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Comment on Arsenal need to sell, Tottenham are financially strong. Oh, hang on… by Nitram https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81453#comment-977896
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 17:58:49 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81453#comment-977896And where is the contrition from these naysaying drainpipes?

Well of course it’s nowhere to be seen, because this is what they do. This is how it works.

This story, like all the other negative Arsenal stories you’ve been highlighting over the last few weeks, has very little, if any evidence to support any predictions of doom and gloom or accusations of mis management.

But they simply don’t care. As long as the story has a negative Arsenal connotation they will say it, print it, and repeat it ad infinitum.

When time and or enlightenment proves their every word to be the musings of a particularly stupid single celled organism, we hear diddly squat. Not a word.

But little does that matter. The endless cycle of negativity has done it’s job. The likes of AFTV are whinging away like the whingey things they are. The AST are chumping at the bit to oust the owners for their incompetence. The AAA are as outraged as ever.

And so it goes on, and on, and on, and on.

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Comment on Those who can make you believe absurdities: how the media affects refereeing by Nitram https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81439#comment-977894
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 14:45:16 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81439#comment-977894Small correction. That last line should read:

The pressure to override that normal home bias, simply in order to be seen not to favour Arsenal in any way shape or form if at all possible, must be enormous.

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Comment on Those who can make you believe absurdities: how the media affects refereeing by Nitram https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81439#comment-977892
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 12:29:40 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81439#comment-977892I have argued for years that it is the media and their bias that determines how the man in black referees a game, as much, if not more so than the ‘home crowd’ effect.

As we know UA has been recently looking at the effect of the home crowd on referees, and more specifically the reasons behind it.

The most popular theory is that referees are ‘only human’, and as such are susceptible to the pressures of the baying crowd. The more vitriolic, abusive, aggressive or just plain nasty the home crowd is, the more likely a referee is to succumb to their will. He may do this consciously, or subconsciously, we can only guess at that, but that he does it, there is little doubt.

This is a theory I wholly subscribe to.

I too am ‘only human’, and even when I was just ‘running the line’ on a Saturday afternoon, I felt the pressure emanating from a ‘crowd’ numbering in the mere dozens. To add to this I had the pressure of my own team mates bellowing at me, with their arms raised, classic Adams style, whenever an opponent was within a yard of being offside.

I had to face these guys in the changing room after the final whistle, which could be pretty awkward if I hadn’t given a crucial decision they thought was ‘off’.

But I swear on my life, I never once bowed to either the baying crowd (crowd in the loosest possible terms you understand) or the desperate back line, but I felt the pressure all right, even at that comparatively insignificant level. As I say, I’m only human.

So yes I get it.

Now regarding the medias relationship with the referee, I believe their performance is similarly affected by them, and it is based on the fact that again, referees are ‘only human’.

In the simplest terms I can come up with, this is how I think it works:

And these first 3 points are crucial.

1) I believe it is the media that are the judge jury and executioner of referees, not Riley or his cohorts.

2) How good or bad a referees performance was, is entirely down to how it is perceived and reported by the media. If the media conclude he had a good game, well he had a good game. If they say he had a stinker, then he had a stinker.

3) PIGMOL’s, The Assessors, Riley’s judgements are all simply a bi product of the medias verdict, to such an extent that I believe their judgment will simply follow the consensus of the media.

As such the referee knows exactly WHO he needs to please, and given how obvious they make it, HOW he has to do it. He knows full well how important it is to keep the hacks happy. If the hacks are happy, Riley is happy. If Riley is happy, his job is safe.

The referee knows if he gives a soft penalty against one of their darlings he will get slaughtered. If he gives it in favour they will find a way to justify it.

Make no mistake the referees know how it works. I mean, we do, why wouldn’t they? Not only are referees ‘only human’ they are also not stupid.

Much like the pressure from the crowd, the pressure from the media is real.

Talking more specifically about Arsenal I believe, despite the protestations of some, it is undeniable that the media has a chronic dislike of Arsenal.

The referees know this. They see and hear the same constant critisism and abuse our club receives that we do.

A referee knows, before the game even starts, that giving us a crucial, controversial decision, could possibly, or in fact is highly likely, to see them pulled to pieces on SKY Sports, Talksport, MOTD or in the Sunday papers.

A bad call against us is often as not simply brushed aside, and often as not completely ignored.

Ask yourself, if you were refereeing us and had a fifty fifty call to make, would you give it to us or our opponent ?

No it’s not an exact science obviously, so how wonky or fair a referee may be in any one match could depend on who we were playing. The importance of the result. The current score line. The time of the match.

But the point is, before the kick off the media will leave the referee in absolutely no doubt as to WHO they want to win, and one things for sure, he knows it wont be Arsenal.

If he has that crucial match deciding fifty fifty call to make, he knows what will happen to him if he calls it wrong in the eyes of the media. He knows he will be slaughtered.

I think the pressure on the referee from the media to make the calls they want is immense and should NOT be underestimated. As Mikey has shown with his stats regarding the yellow cards awarded at The Emirates, it seems the pressure from the media is so great it overrides even the pressure that my be applied by the home crowd.

To override that normal home bias simply in order to not favour Arsenal in any way shape or form, if at all possible, must be enormous.

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Comment on Aubameyang leaving Arsenal at knock down price? It’s not quite that simple. by mick shelley https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81423#comment-977869
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 15:32:41 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81423#comment-977869Teamtalk have taken Neville’s comments a stage further by accusing Arsenal of “flailing”, a new derisory word to add to the others regularly used to insult our club.
See their headline….
“Neville not surprised flailing Arsenal are facing Aubameyang dilemma”
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Comment on How the Sun’s story of Arsenal incompetence and money wasting unravelled by Pete the Thirst https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81396#comment-977846
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 09:46:00 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81396#comment-977846Tony

The original article is from the Athletic as you point out. The writer is Amy Lawrence, a long term Arsenal fanatic and I have seen her at many games. She generally has the best interests of the Club at heart and her articles are well researched.

Are you classing her as anti-Arsenal?

I find this hard to believe. Are you just engaging in a bit of Kremlinology here?

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Comment on How the Sun’s story of Arsenal incompetence and money wasting unravelled by Chris https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81396#comment-977781
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 19:09:17 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81396#comment-977781Tony,

120’000 per week ammounts to a little over 6 million. Their calculation is that the salary is 10 million….they do not want their math to add up, so they make up numbers

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Comment on The revelation that has scuppered PGMO once and for all by Mikey https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81392#comment-977757
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 13:37:52 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81392#comment-977757@ Tony

I’m 100% in agreement with you about the incompetence issue. I merely wanted to highlight that the level of “incompetence” seems to be “even greater” when it comes to Arsenal’s home games and strangely, overwhelmingly in favour of our opponents. I’m surprised people haven’t suggested something far worse than mere incompetence……..I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before our sharp witted friends in the media are up in arms about how “unlucky” we are!!

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Comment on How the Sun’s story of Arsenal incompetence and money wasting unravelled by Mikey https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81396#comment-977756
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 13:31:24 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81396#comment-977756Just as a matter of interest, £24 per annum is exactly what Maquire is costing Man Utd (assuming he doesn’t get a pay rise) without taking into account the cost of “intermediaries”. So given we needed a centre back as cover until Saliba arrived and bearing in mind Holding was out for a year what’s all the fuss about? Sure Luiz is past his best (but at his best could walk rings round Maquire) but if I need to buy in someone on a short-term temporary contract for my organisation I expect to pay a premium. If I use an agency I expect to pay an even bigger premium. As you say, these people are idiots.
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Comment on The revelation that has scuppered PGMO once and for all by WalterBroeckx https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81392#comment-977755
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 13:29:41 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81392#comment-977755Mikey,
one set of rules for everyone, one set of rules for The Arsenal…. simple…
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Comment on The revelation that has scuppered PGMO once and for all by Tony Attwood https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81392#comment-977735
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 11:12:29 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81392#comment-977735In reply to Mikey.

I agree with your point Mikey – but it does seem to me that there are two issues here. One relates to the way certain clubs are treated by refs, and the other by the fact that PGMO’s statements are simply made-up nonsense, which the press gulp down and regurgitate wholesale.

I’m tending to deal with them separately because I am still working on the relationship between the two. The most obvious answer to that issue is that the 98% figure and other nonsense is there not just to give general credibility to the PGMO employees, but also to cover up what goes on when specific action is taken wholesale against specific teams.

By keeping the notion that refs are fair and that fans just complain about their own team being unreasonably treated by the ref, then the media is less inclined to consider the oddities – such as Liverpool so often getting the same referee.

What I think we need to do is to work on undermining the credibility of PGMO and its referees first, and thus say “look they are lying through their teeth with their stats, so now, what else are they up to.

At least that’s the route I am currently taking in my pieces.

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Comment on The revelation that has scuppered PGMO once and for all by Gunnerphilic https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/81392#comment-977721
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 09:40:37 +0000https://untold-arsenal.com/?p=81392#comment-977721Let go of this story now? No, please don’t. These people are frauds and the media have been their willing collaborators.
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